4👑☸ Cattāri Ariya-saccaṃ 四聖諦

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🔗parittas and miracles

also see:

Fortune favors the virtuous: True stories of karma, rebirth, illustrating karmic fruit ripening, often in dramatic and extraordinary fashion.
The Raft ☸🚣‍: Much better than standard parittas commonly used.

Paritta

little, insignificant. Protection

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paritta
https://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Texts-and-Translations/Safeguard/index.htm
https://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Texts-and-Translations/Blessing-Chants/index.htm

1. Sarana-gama ("Going for Refuge") KN Kp 1
2. Dasa-sikkhapada ("Ten Training Precepts") KN Kp 2
3. Samanera-pañha ("Novice Questions") KN Kp 4
4. Dvattimsakara ("32 Body Parts") KN Kp 3
5. Paccavekkhana ("Reflections on Monastic Requisites") MN 2 (excerpt), passim
6. Dasa-dhamma Sutta ("Ten Dhamma Discourse") AN 10.48
7. Mahamangala Sutta ("Great Blessings Discourse") KN Kp 5, KN Snp 2.4
8. Ratana Sutta ("Three Treasures Discourse") KN Kp 6, KN Snp 2.1
9. Karaniya Metta Sutta ("Friendly-kindness Discourse") KN Kp 9, Snp 1.8
10. Khandha-paritta ("Aggregates Protection") AN 4.67
11. Metta-anisamsa ("Friendly-kindness Advantages Discourse") AN 11.16
12. Mitta-anisamsa ("Friendship Advantages Discourse")
13. Mora-paritta ("The Peacock's Protection")
14. Canda-paritta ("The Moon's Protection") SN 2.9
15. Suriya-paritta ("The Sun's Protection") SN 2.10
16. Dhajagga-paritta ("Banner Protection") SN 11.3
17. Mahakassapa Thera Bojjhanga ("Elder Maha Kassapa's Factors of Awakening") SN 46.14 (Gilana Sutta I)
18. Mahamoggallana Thera Bojjhanga ("Elder Maha Moggalana's Factors of Awakening") SN 46.15 (Gilana Sutta II)
19. Mahacunda Thera Bojjhanga ("Elder Maha Cunda's Factors of Awakening") SN 46.16 (Gilana Sutta III)
20. Girimananda Sutta ("To Girimananda Discourse") AN 10.60
21. Isigili Sutta ("About Isigili Discourse") MN 116
22. Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta ("Setting in Motion the Dhamma Wheel Discourse") SN 56.11
23. Maha-samaya Sutta ("The Great Assembly Discourse") DN 20
24. Alavaka Sutta ("Concerning Alavaka Discourse") SN 46.11
25. Kasi Bharadvaja Sutta ("Farmer Bharadvaja Discourse") KN Snp 1.4
26. Parabhava Sutta ("On Ruin Discourse") KN Snp 1.6
27. Vasala Sutta ("On Outcasts Discourse") KN Snp 1.7
28. Sacca-vibhanga Sutta ("Analysis of the Truth Discourse") MN 141
29. Atanatiya Sutta ("Atanatiya Discourse") DN 32

Wei Tuo Bodhisattva's vow

On one image of Wei Tuo, there is an inscription that says:
(Rough paraphrase and translation)

To any practitioner who practices righteous Dharma,
with pure virtuous mind free of any evil,
I vow to protect the interests of genuine Dharma.

If any demon or obstructive force opposes,
I will pummel them into submission and force their surrender.

AN 10.60 Girimananda and the Raft 🚣, director’s cut

AN 4.191 and AN 10.60

What AN 4.191 talks about, is what happens to virtuous monastics when they die and are reborn in Deva realms. They get infatuated with the pleasures of the Deva realm, and forget about what they learned and practiced as a human monastic. But because of their good karma and association with virtuous spiritual companions, either powerful human monastics with psychic powers communicate with them, or other Devas in their community who remember the Dharma from their human life jog their memory and help them return to the Dharma path.

In AN 10.60, Girimananda is gravely ill, on his deathbed. The Buddha sends Ananda to talk to him and encourage him with 10 Dharma topics. What happens next, is surely a corruption, brought to you by the same Hollywood executive producers who corrupted
SN 46.14, SN 46.15, and SN 46.16.

But if you study AN 4.191 carefully, you can reconstruct AN 10.60 to get a director's cut, what the original director had intended the sutta to say.

Clearly, if you connect the dots between AN 4.191 and AN 10.60, what the Buddha is actually doing is giving Girimananda a care package, instructions on what to do if he dies from his illness. He's saying, "look, obviously you haven't attained Arahantship in this life, so if you die, don't become infatuated with the Deva Nymphs and Deva pleasures. Memorize these 10 Dharma topics, and finish the job. The job is not finished until you attain Arahantship. Also, it's possible that hearing these 10 awesome Dharma teachings, the rapture and pleasure are so inspiring that it stimulates your immune system and it's possible you recover from the illness. But don't count on it! Assume you're going to die, memorize these 10 dharmas, and when you're reborn in the Deva realm, hit the ground running. Practice these 10 Dharmas and finish the job! a-p-pamāda 🐘🐾‍-ena sampādethā!"

That's the original Director's cut, before the Hollywood Executive producers stepped in. They said, "We gotta sell tickets! We can't fill seats in the theatre if the hero in the story dies. We have to have a happy ending! Girimanda must have a miraculous recovery and live happily ever after. And people don't want to work hard. They want a quick magic mantra they can chant and get an instant magical cure!"

And so, that is how you end up with corrupted paritta suttas as they are recorded in Theravada canon today. But don't believe the corruptions. Trust your common sense and AN 4.191. There is no free lunch, no short cut, no magic mantra that cures fatal diseases. Every moment, give the Dharma everything you've got. Build your The Raft ☸🚣‍ and ride it to the island of Nirvana. Finish the job! (a-p-pamāda 🐘🐾‍-ena sampādethā).

Ven. Dhammanando witnessed monk healing deep 5 inch cut with paritta

https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2020/12/first-hand-account-ven-dhammanando.html
12/18/20: First hand account, Ven.
Dhammanando witnessed monk healing deep 5 inch cut with paritta

Re: First and Third Noble Truth

Unread post by Dhammanando » Wed Mar 25,
2015 7:37 pm

Kalama wrote:
Interesting, Bhante, would you mind to share?

T., a rascally teenage American samanera in a kuti near to mine,
was whittling a piece of wood the wrong way,
drawing the knife towards his body rather than away from it.
I showed him how to do it properly, but he was a know-all and didn’t like taking orders,
so as soon I was out of sight he went back to his former way of doing it.
At one point the knife stuck fast in the wood and the samanera
continued to press the blade forward instead of pulling it back.
I then heard a loud scream coming from his hut.
When I went to investigate I saw that his inept craftsmanship had resulted in a deep,
5-inch long wound in the forearm, with probably one or two tubes
severed to judge from the fountain of blood that was spurting out.
I staunched the bleeding with a tourniquet and then requested
permission to take the samanera to hospital to get him stitched up.
Permission was denied.
The abbot said that no stitches were necessary and he would deal with it himself.
He then took hold of T’s arm and spent the next quarter of an hour chanting the Bojjhaṅgaparitta,
the Rājato, and an abridged version of the northern Thai Seub Jātā paritta cycle,
occasionally pausing to blow on the samanera’s arm.
When he’d finished and the tourniquet was removed the bleeding had stopped.
When the blood was washed away there was no longer a wound on the arm at all.
Where the wound had been there was now just collagenous scar
tissue that bore a faded look as if the injury had happened years before.

This is probably the most persuasive example I can think of,
inasmuch as it involves something that cannot very plausibly be explained away as a placebo effect,
especially considering that the impetuous young American was
anxious to get to the hospital and throughout the chanting kept glancing at the clock,
rolling his eyes and clenching his fists in exasperation.
And so it was palpably clear that he had no confidence whatever in the paritta’s or the abbot’s power to heal him.

Incidentally, some might think that this occurrence calls into
question the Milindapañha’s statement that the efficacy of parittas is impeded by obstructive past kamma,
by mental defilement and by disbelief,
for in this case the paritta seems to have worked even though
it was quite obvious that the samanera was both unbelieving and afflicted with defilement.
However Nāgasena’s discussion of parittas seems to be concerned only with their use in averting imminent death,
so perhaps there is no contradiction.

Re: Bojjhangaparitta and healing

Post by frank k » Fri Dec 18, 2020 8:19 am

Dhammanando wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 6:31 pm

simsapa wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 6:14 pm
Have people found that these sort of things actually have healing power?

Yes

Ven.
D.,
I don't doubt that the details of the story happened in your first hand account,
but I seriously doubt it had anything with the inherent power of the bojjhanga paritta itself,

but was actually a result of the combination of:
1) supernormal powers of the healer monk
2) healing powers of helpful devas doing the actual healing.
3) strong good karma of the healer monk,
which would attract helpful devas

If bojjhanga paritta, angulimala paritta,
or any paritta has the superstitious powers they claim,
then many people should be able to demonstrate with witnesses its efficacy,
not just a few rare instances like the incident you witnessed.

I suspect the monk could have chanted anything,
even sang the alphabet song and gotten the same healing result.

IMO,
Rather than waste any time believing in parittas and figuring out which one is good for what type of situation,
really we should be focused on developing samadhi and being a good person.
The better you are at that, the larger base of friends,
helpful devas, and more influential and powerful devas that you'll attract in proportion to your samadhi and sila.

Ven.
D. responds:
Re: Bojjhangaparitta and healing

Unread post by Dhammanando » Fri Dec 18,
2020 10:34 pm

frank k wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 8:19 am
Ven.
D.,
I don't doubt that the details of the story happened in your first hand account,
but I seriously doubt it had anything with the inherent power of the bojjhanga paritta itself,

but was actually a result of the combination of:
1) supernormal powers of the healer monk
2) healing powers of helpful devas doing the actual healing.
3) strong good karma of the healer monk,
which would attract helpful devas

If bojjhanga paritta, angulimala paritta,
or any paritta has the superstitious powers they claim,
then many people should be able to demonstrate with witnesses its efficacy,
not just a few rare instances like the incident you witnessed.

Personally I'm quite openminded and undoctrinaire about the causes of parittas
' efficacy.

Still, with regard to the part I've bolded,
the hypothesis of there being some inherent power in the words
(or the sounds or the meaning) of the parittas themselves wouldn't
actually be falsified by the fact that paritta-chanting is sometimes efficacious and sometimes not.
The inconsistent results could be accounted for by the hypothesis that you yourself have proposed,
namely, that the efficacy of parittas is a synergetic phenomenon.
If you're right about that, then it can't be ruled out a priori
that an inherent power in the paritta's words is one component in that synergy,
but that it will not be efficacious in the absence of the other component(s).

Alternatively, it could by accounted for Milindapañha-style:
parittas are inherently powerful and when they fail it's because
their power is blocked by obstructive kamma in the paritta's intended beneficiary.

frank k wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 8:19 am
I suspect the monk could have chanted anything,
even sang the alphabet song and gotten the same healing result.

Well, maybe, though I would note that this is not what the monk himself believes,
for he's committed to the Milindapañha's view and modestly disclaims
that his paritta healing feats might have anything to do with the fact that it's he who is doing the chanting.
Which leads me to wonder if there might not be a plausible intermediate position here,
i.e., that a paritta's efficacy is not dependent on any inherent power in its words,
but might be dependent on the chanter believing that there is such a power.

Re: Bojjhangaparitta and healing

Post by frank k » Sat Dec 19, 2020 8:14 am

Dhammanando wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 10:34 pm
...

I'm all for open mindedness and maintaining a rational amount of uncertainty,
but it seems to me bojjhanga parittas and most (if not all)
of the parittas fall under superstition rather than Dhamma that
would meet the criteria of AN 4.180 four great references.
http://lucid24.org/an/an04/an04-v18/index.html#s180

That the modern sutta collection contains suttas such as SN 46 bojjhanga's SN 46.14-16,
does not meet AN 4.180 standard, the same way we can't take
what the Bible says is God's word because God said it was in the Bible.

Instead, it should lead us to conclude that these 3 suttas are not the words of the Buddha:
SN 46.14 Gilāna 1 : sick: probably a corrupt sutta.
It's not in accordance with the Dharma to chant 7 magic words and expect miraculous healing powers to occur.
SN 46.15 Gilāna 2 : sick: probably a corrupt sutta.
It's not in accordance with the Dharma to chant 7 magic words and expect miraculous healing powers to occur.
SN 46.16 Gilāna 3 : sick: probably a corrupt sutta.
It's not in accordance with the Dharma to chant 7 magic words and expect miraculous healing powers to occur.

If the Buddha did indeed teach such supertitious parittas with inherent magical healing powers,
then why did he ever need to use medicine to deal with illness,
or use animitta samadhi to suppress body pain from Devadatta injuring his foot,
or any of the great Arahants doing similar things?
Why need medicine at all or like Anuruddha teaches in Anuruddha samyutta,
use 4sp satipatthana to bear great phyical pain from serious illness,
when they can just chant 7 magical words that magically heal illnessness and pain?

How would Milinda explain this?
Did Buddha and Arahants have karmic merit just on certain occasions to use the parittas (as in SN 46),
and then suddenly lose merit and not be able to use the paritta
on other far more numerous occasions when they could have benefitted from it as well?

It just doesn't make any sense.
We have to reject this whole paritta thing as superstition.

The actual miraculous healings people experienced throughout time,
most of the time devas (guardian angels) are doing the heavy lifting.
Otherwise, how can we explain medically miraculous events occurring with other religions,
and even with atheists with no religious intermediary healer?

The common denominator we find in the vast majority of the cases with miraculous healing,
with subjects of different religions and atheists,
is that they are
1) great people with lots of positive karma accumulated over many lifetimes,
and attract of circle of friends that include devas and guardian angels in abundance.

2) or people with very mixed or even net bad karma,
but have some karmic debt to collect from a guardian angel who heals,
and after their miraculous healing they start doing lots of
great positive karmic actions to show appreciation and pay it forward.
The devas foresaw that this would happen,
and thus lent a hand in transforming their character.